Six Die at Indonesian Detention Centre

Jakarta, MINA — Five officers and one prisoner have been killed in a riot at a police detention centre in a city near Indonesia’s capital, AAP quoted an official as saying..

The riot happened in Depok, on Jakarta’s southern outskirts, where four days earlier police arrested three Islamic militants they say planned to attack the headquarters and other police stations in the same town.

The Islamic State group’s Amaq News Agency published a report saying the fighting that broke out at the prison late on Tuesday was between its fighters and the counterterrorism squad.

A counterterrorism investigator said in a text message that six officers had been taken hostage by the inmates, and five of them were killed. One other officer was still being held captive.

Four police officers were injured and were being treated at a hospital, said the investigator, who did not want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to reporters.

Earlier in the day, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told reporters outside the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade police in Depok that some people from both sides were injured, but didn’t give a number.

Unconfirmed reports said the riot began when some terrorist detainees tried to grab weapons from guards on the counterterrorism squad.

“It was just triggered by a trivial thing, about food from families,” Iqbal said.

The inmates reportedly pushed an iron trellis until it broke before taking long-barreled weapons and breaking through the ammunition room inside the detention building. That led to a shoot-out between the inmates and counterterrorism officers.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has carried out a sustained crackdown on Islamic militants since the 2002 Bali bombings by Jemaah Islamiah network that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The network was neutralised following the arrests of hundreds of its militants and leaders.

But new threats have emerged recently from Islamic State group-inspired radicals who have targeted security forces and local “infidels” instead of Westerners. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)